NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The furor over plans to build a Muslim cultural center near the World Trade Center site shows nine years of efforts to separate Islam from association with terrorism have largely failed, experts say.
“I'd take it one step further. I'd say that it's far, far worse today than it was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11,” said Reza Aslan, a writer and scholar on religion, using the shorthand for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Public opinion polls show more than 60 percent of Americans oppose building the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site known as “Ground Zero.” Former U.S. President George W. Bush repeatedly sought to separate Islam from the al Qaeda hijackers who carried out the attacks there and on the Pentagon, and all major American Muslim organizations have issued repeated statements condemning violence in the name of Islam.
But that message has been overpowered by news coverage of the seemingly endless attacks on civilians often claimed by al Qaeda, the Taliban and other Islamist extremists in the Muslim world, in addition to images of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then there are cases closer to home.
In February, an Afghan immigrant pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bomb attack on New York City subways after al Qaeda training. In June a Pakistani-born American citizen pleaded guilty to attempting to set off a car bomb in Times Square, saying Islamist extremists would continue to attack the United States.
Receiving far less attention are regular statements from the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations strongly condemning any violence perpetrated in the name of Islam.
“The Fiqh Council of North America wishes to reaffirm Islam's condemnation of terrorism and religious extremism,” the council said in a 2008 fatwa, or religious ruling.
“Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives. There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism.” Both Muslim and non-Muslim religious scholars generally support that view of the faith's mainstream, but for many Americans extremist actions have had more resonance than the moderate majority's words and practices.
At Pentagon, Muslims pray without protests
WASHINGTON, Aug 21, (AFP) -Without controversy or protests, Muslims kneel in prayer every day at a quiet Pentagon chapel, only steps away from where a hijacked airliner struck the building on September 11, 2001.
The tranquil atmosphere at the Pentagon is a stark contrast to the furor surrounding a planned mosque near Ground Zero in New York, with opponents arguing the proposed Islamic center is an insult to the memory of the 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attacks.“I've been here almost four years and I've never head of any complaints,” US Army spokesman George Wright said of the regular Muslim services.
Families of those killed in the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11 have not raised objections over the Islamic services, he said.
On Friday afternoon, an imam led about 18 Muslim men and women in prayer. They knelt beneath a stained-glass window bearing an image of the Pentagon, an American bald eagle and the words: “United in memory, September 11, 2001.”A woman at the service was in uniform -- combat camouflage -- and clad in a head scarf, one of more than 3,000 Muslims who serve in the US military.
While they prayed, a young Marine officer led a group of visitors on a tour of the Pentagon in the corridor, describing the impact of the plane hijacked by men who portrayed themselves as Muslim warriors. |
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